UC Clermont Dean Dr. Jeff Bauer opens the heroin action plan meeting on May 26. Seated, from left, are participants Cheri Walter, CEO, Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities, Dr. Brian Treon, Clermont County Coroner, Karen Scherra, Executive Director, Clermont County Mental Health and Recovery Board,Jennifer Biddinger, Ohio Attorney General’s Office and Scott Gaviglia, Union Township Police Chief.

UC Clermont Dean Dr. Jeff Bauer opens the heroin action plan meeting on May 26. Seated, from left, are participants Cheri Walter, CEO, Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities, Dr. Brian Treon, Clermont County Coroner, Karen Scherra, Executive Director, Clermont County Mental Health and Recovery Board,Jennifer Biddinger, Ohio Attorney General’s Office and Scott Gaviglia, Union Township Police Chief.
By Wayne Gates
Editor

The Clermont County Opiate Task Force presented an action plan to fight heroin to the community on May 26.

The event was held in the Student Activities Center on the campus of University of Cincinnati Clermont College in Batavia, and attracted over 100 community leaders and interested citizens.

Some very sobering statistics were presented to those in attendance.

Clermont County Coroner Dr. Brian Treon reported that since 2003, opiate and heroin deaths in the county have increased 500 percent, from seven in 2003 to 36 in 2014. He added that accidental deaths attributed to the increased use of heroin went from 85 in 2013 to 105 in 2014.

A document produced by the task force titled “Breaking the Cycle: Clermont County’s Response to the Opioid Epidemic” was also available to the public at the meeting.

The plan has four elements: increasing the availability of treatment and recovery housing, preventing use of opiates, reducing harm to the public and reducing the supply of opiates.

Among the statistics in the Executive Summary of the document was the fact that Clermont County averages at least one opiate overdose per week, and that heroin overdose deaths more than doubled in the county between 2009 and 2013.

Clermont County currently ranks eighth in the state in per capita death rates from drug overdoses, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

The common theme among those present at the summit was that heroin addiction affects nearly every person in the county in some way, either directly or through crime associated with the addiction process.

Karen Scherra, Executive Director of the Clermont County Mental Health and Recovery Board, said a lack of resources and funding is a major issue in getting on top of the problem.

In a perfect world with plenty of funding, Scherra would address the problem from the treatment side first, she said.

“Every single person with a heroin addiction would get medication assisted treatment with either Suboxone or Vivitrol. That treatment has become the standard of care and that’s really how you can beat it. The other would be to have prevention programs in every school and college.”

The reality that Scherra faces is a very tight budget.

“We have 900 people in the agency we fund, Clermont Recovery Center, who have a heroin addiction. Currently, only 250 of them are getting medication assisted treatment. The others are getting what we have. Will it be enough? I don’t know.”

Scherra said that provisions also have to be made for former addicts once treatment is over for them.

“We also don’t have sober living or recovery houses, we don’t have recovery coaching. There are a lot of things we need that we just don’t have the funding for.”

She added that the heroin stereotype of men hiding in alleys with needles just isn’t true anymore.

“There is no class distinction with heroin. It affects every ethnicity, every income level. We’ve had a man as old as 65 overdose from heroin because he got addicted to pain pills and then couldn’t get them anymore and switched to heroin. That’s the scariest thing about this epidemic. It’s everywhere.”

Clermont County Commissioner Ed Humphrey said he can see the effects of the heroin problem on the county’s bottom line.

“It certainly affects the criminal justice system and child support and all the folks that deal with children and adults,” he said.

“Criminal justice accounts for over sixty percent of the county’s budget, so the problem hits us financially in many ways.”

Humphrey said the county is trying to deal with the law enforcement side of the problem by making room for the larger number of those arrested for drug possession.

“We are adding 50 new beds to the jail, with 16 of those for men and 34 of them for women. Our higher female population in the jail due to heroin has really become a problem that we are trying to address,” he said.

Discussions are underway with state lawmakers to see if the county can get additional funding help from the state, Humphrey said.

Jason Nagle, Clermont County Chief Assistant Prosecutor, said his office is seeing the impact of the problem as well.

“There is a much larger caseload of violent cases, more home burglaries and robberies taking place. What you’ll see is someone breaking into five or 10 homes to steal what they need to get money to buy heroin,” Nagle said.

“The safety and quality of life of the general public is being put at increased risk because of the heroin problem.”

He added that he has watched the problem increase in urgency since he has worked as a prosecutor.

“Fifteen years ago, if you saw two or three heroin cases a year, that was a shock. I would say now that well over 50 percent of the cases that we see are either directly possession or trafficking heroin cases or cases where someone has committed some sort of crime due to their addiction to heroin,” Nagle said.

UC Clermont Dean Jeff Bauer said he was pleased that the university was helping to play a role in addressing the heroin problem.

“Part of the college’s mission is to really reach out to the community.  We are hoping that by providing a forum for this issue that we striving to make sure that our students are informed citizens and by hosting an event like this, we might have an opportunity to involve more students in the process and it helps our mission to help promote the social and cultural development of not just our students but also the local community.”

Bauer said that UC is working hard to put more players into the game when it comes to fighting heroin.

“Our Human Social Services program is really focused on addictions and some of the problems that are associated with people that have those types of issues. If we can design a program or place people in the community that have a specific skill set that can help them help people within the community, that would be the ultimate goal.”

Scherra said that part of the solution was remembering why the addicts have a problem.

“Addiction is a disease. It’s not a moral failing or a choice. That’s why we need to treat it like an illness. People can get help, they can recover and lead happy and productive lives. Help join us in the fight. We can’t do it alone. It’s going to take the whole community to fight this.”

For more information, contact the Clermont County Opiate Task Force at 513-732-5400.